Memorial Reflections for Special Agent William (Buddy) Sentner

Special Agent William (Buddy) Sentner United States Department of Justice - Office of Inspector General U.S. Government End of Watch: Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Incident Details Cause of Death: Gunfire Date of Incident: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 Incident Location: Florida Weapon Used: Handgun Suspect Info: Shot and killed

Special Agent Buddy Sentner was shot and killed in the Tallahassee Federal Correctional Institution while serving arrest warrants on six federal corrections officers at approximately 7:45 am.

The officers were being charged with smuggling contraband to prisoners in exchange for money, and sexual contact with female inmates.

As agents served the warrants in the lobby, one of the six corrections officers opened fire, and wounded a corrections officer assisting the agents and fatally wounded Agent Sentner.

Agents returned fire, killing the assailant. The other five corrections officers were taken into custody.

Agent Sentner had served in law enforcement for 15 years. He was assigned to the Officer of Inspector General's Orlando Field Office. He was a former member of the Secret Service.

Agency Contact Information United States Department of Justice - Office of Inspector General 1425 New York Avenue, NW Suite 7100 Washington, DC 20530

My Uncle Bob was a 30 year veteran of a police force in suburban Cleveland. He was best man at my wedding 45 years ago. He served in an era when MOST cops embodied the now frequently hollow motto emblazoned on police units all over this country: “TO PROTECT AND SERVE.”

The last 10 years of his career were spent as the chief Juvenile Detective in his department. When he died, a number of the young men whose lives he had touched years before came forward to tell how his timely and sometimes tough-love intervention turned them around.

I know that many officers STILL try to live that creed today. I also know that there are officers out there who, despite the rulings by the Supremes that they have no obligation to specific, individual citizens, would stand between one of us and a bullet – and have.

Having said that, I must also lament that SOME cops are “cowboys.” Too many are simply power driven megalomaniacs who would have dropped on the OTHER side of the law had their lives drifted a degree or two off the course they did take.

I believe this to be especially true of far too many federal law enforcement types who have allowed their egos and hubris to become as bloated as the bureaucratic federal behemoth they serve. (See footnote below). Their mandate is no longer to “…protect and serve” the citizens who pay their salaries: It is to crush any meaningful resistance to a growing body of procedures, regulations and policies – too frequently enforced under severely tortured interpretations of the underlying legislative enactments (if any) – and often put in place by executive fiat. The massively abused SEIZURE statutes – laws the author of which now seeks to RESCIND! -- spring to mind.

And one cannot but help to wonder how the clear to anyone with half a brain criminality of the Clintons – and their subsequent avoidance of any penalty – has played into the problem? There now seems to be a bright line between the easy, highly flexible, slap-on-the-wrist law for the rich and powerful and the rigidly enforced law against even the tiniest victimless “crimes” committed by those of us further down the food chain. Does anyone in his right mind believe THAT will NOT engender added disrespect for ALL law?

Could those things be a large part of the problem in some of the highly disturbing – and DEADLY (on BOTH sides) – confrontations we have witnessed over the past decade or so? Gordon Kahl, Ruby Ridge, OK City, Waco, Beck… This list WILL lengthen and we’d all better pray that WE will be spared.

Roman historian Tacitus warned that one could tell the level of corruption in a society by the NUMBER of its laws. Anyone doubt the level of corruption here?
Am I the only one who thinks we’re long overdue a serious review of the NUMBERS of laws under which we are now forced to exist – and which are increasingly used not to assure our safety or well-being, but to COMMAND AND CONTROL us and KEEP US IN LINE.

Only the most tyrannical and power-crazed members of law enforcement could possibly object to that.

The modern counterparts of my uncle would not object.

It is THEY, after all, who are most likely to catch that bullet – probably fired by someone who has symbolically screamed to himself “I’M MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANY MORE” -- referred to earlier when they sally forth to serve that flimsy warrant or make that bogus arrest.

Dick Bachert (1999) Updated 5/2006

FOOTNOTE:
At a cocktail party back in the late 80's, I struck up a chat with a fellow -- his name was Joe M. -- whom I'd met on one or two previous events. After my first encounter, Joe's neighbot and my boss at the time told me that Joe was an alcoholic who had just retired from 25 years with the IRS. Needless to say, I was guarded in expressing my political views to Joe as the IRS had helped my dad into an early grave in 1977 -- at age 59 over an estate matter. Joe was pretty deep into his cups at the function in question and began telling IRS "war stories." Most had to do with clear cases of criminal conduct by not very nice people. Joe -- who was a few years short of 60 -- sounded to me like someone who enjoyed helping getting bad people (mainly hard drug dealers) off the street and I asked why he'd retired early. He told me that what he called "the service" had changed for the worse. Then I asked him about the new people coming in. He shook his head, actually teared up and said that many of them were "really bad." I pressed. "Really bad" meant incompetent? "No -- DANGEROUS," he responded "they like to hurt people."

It was then that I think I understood why Joe drank.

I worked in the Federal Prison system for 14 years. The second institution I worked in was FCI/FDC Tallahassee, FL. We switched from male to female inmates at the FCI when I was there. It's tough working with female offenders, but there's no excuse for what these correctional officers did.

After several moves up the ranks, I became a special agent in DC, but worked with OIG and FBI agents at many federal prisons, including those in Florida. I had the privilege of working with Buddy on several cases in FL, and always found him to be a friendly individual. Although most of the federal correctional officers out there are very good professionals, this obviously wasn't the case here. Even though I vaguely knew some of the officers who were arrested, my first thought upon finding out Buddy was killed, was that I wished he would have had a weapon with him. He didn't deserve to go down unarmed.

I offer my condolences to Buddy's family and the Office of the Inspector General, Department of Justice.

God bless Mr. Sentner's family. There are too many good men being taken from us, while the criminals seem to multiply.

I can't understand why, if they wanted to do the arrests in a "controlled" environment, they didn't knock on their doors at 3 a.m. and wake them up, instead of letting them roll into work armed(the day after the indictments). Rumor has it that they were tipped off, and one of the clowns wouldn't get out of his vehicle in the parking lot until arresting officers' weapons were pulled.

It seems as though the federal agents working for the I.G.'s office had or should have had weapons going in. Apparently, the shooter had suicide by cop or murdering a witness on his mind that day, but we'll never know why he gunned down an innocent man just doing his duty. Just a shame they couldn't frisk the guards this one day out of the year. As usual, the actions of a few will taint for years the good deeds of the many. Justice should be swift, so that others may see the consequences.

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